Citizen or subject?
What people tend to forget is that governments naturally accumulate power. It’s not some evil drive for global domination in most cases, just a sincere belief that what they are doing is the right thing. Government exists to protect people from the actions of other people, and as long as it limits itself to that role, the people are citizens. But every government exceeds that role, usually at the request of some of the citizens, who feel that some other group needs to be protected from itself. We begin to pass laws to protect people from themselves, like mandatory helmets for motorcyclists, and seat belt laws for motorists. We pass helmet laws for bicyclists, because “It’s for their own good.” But as soon as a government starts to act to protect us from our own actions, acting in a paternalistic fashion, we stop being citizens and start becoming subjects. We grant the government the authority to force us to change our behavior.